The Ontario New Democratic Party may have become a strong opposition, but a majority government still means a blank cheque in the realm of lawmaking. I felt awful, and so did my friends and colleagues who began to send despairing messages over Facebook and Twitter when the announcement was broadcasted across the province. For those of us in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) community, this is a nightmare scenario as far as politics goes.

The health of school children

A rigorous sex-ed and LGBTQ inclusive education was implemented into Ontario’s elementary and secondary curriculum by the Liberal government in 2015. This became a major campaign issue for the Progressive Conservative party during the 2018 election.

My concerns about Ford’s plan to scrap the sex-ed legislation is that he will likely also drag back any progress Ontario has made in educating youth about what it means to identify in the LGBTQ spectrum.

Allowing children to make informed decisions

Sex-ed in Ontario is currently listed under the health and physical education curriculum and is carefully spread out between primary and secondary education. Specifically, it’s listed under the “healthy living” section with the intent of giving children enough knowledge to make healthy decisions.

The education is in place so that children will be able to make informed decisions to protect themselves against early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Furthermore, they will gain clear ideas about bodily health, emotional wellbeing and consent.

When I was younger, and still presenting as a straight man, I was afflicted with many psychological and social issues. While I attended school, I did not learn what it meant to be bisexual or transgender. Because of this, I had no language to explain how I felt or why I didn’t quite fit into the mould that I was being forced into. I didn’t even know that transgender people existed.

You learn how to behave through a process of socialization that happens through the influence of families, media and school. A child’s time navigating through educational institutions is an opportunity to teach that child what is and isn’t acceptable.

Up until the Liberal government’s sex-ed changes, children would learn that there are boys and girls, and that boys date girls. Anything concerning LGBTQ realities were excluded, and this institutional silence allowed discrimination and ignorance to flourish.

Sex-ed isn’t going to turn you gay

This is problematic for two reasons. First, people are LGBTQ whether they know what that means or not. It isn’t a choice. Sex-ed isn’t going to turn cisgender, straight kids into pansexual trans persons. When LGBTQ children have no means to understand their feelings, they become alienated from themselves and others.

As a transgender child, I had no idea how to interpret my gender dysphoria and really didn’t figure it out until I was close to 30. As you might imagine, I wish I could have figured it out when I was in high school.

Second, when LGBTQ diversity and inclusion are not taught, children pick up on social and cultural cues that informally teach them that it is wrong to be queer. Not only does a LGBTQ child feel an enormous amount of self-shame, if found out, they are also exposed to an enormous amount of homophobia and transphobia.

This depressing reality isn’t set in stone. We can still stop Doug Ford and his politics of exclusion. Removing sex-ed and LGBTQ material from educational institutions is an act of discrimination against our community and we need to use every tool that we can muster to resist the PC government’s efforts.

We need to file human rights complaints with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) and litigate his repeal in the name of the public interest. We need to mobilize in the streets and in classrooms to show him that we won’t stand for being thrown back into the closet.